Sai Baba the Master - By E.Bhardawaj

[Guest guest]

It was on a Thurday morning after my prayer, that I was told all this and

it at once struck me that, probably, Baba had used my illness to serve the

purpose of getting me in touch with a living great saint. So I at once told

my visitor friend to take me to him that day. My friend was at first

hesitant to do so and asked me to wait till I was well. But I insisted.

 

My friend first went out and saw where the holy one was and took me there

in a rickshaw. There, in the front verandah of a thatched hotel was seated,

a man of about 50 or 55, his clothes all dirty and dust-laden, his whole

body unwashed, his hair and beard growing long and twined like ropes. He

had a leg swollen with elephantiasis. He sat there smoking and blinking at

the world like one stupefied. I at first felt that he could be anything but

a saint. Even when I stood close to him he took no notice of me. I wondered

whether he was sane at all.

 

Time passed in awkward silence and I tried twice to attract his attention

by bowing to him. He did not seem to have noticed it at all. I immediately

became aware of a subtle but significant change gradually coming in my

mind. All thoughts regarding the Swami and the self-conscious waiting on my

part and my apprehensions of what the passers by on the road would think of

me were rapidly dissolved into a profound inner peace which deepened more

and more firmly. I sat down and my body was getting more and more locked up

in one posture and it was imbibing the peace. I at once knew that I was in

the presence of a perfect avadhuta. He just glanced at me and I joined my

palms in salutation. He took no notice of it. I gradually grew aware of my

friend’s presence by my side. I felt I should see the saint alone and left

for the hospital. The words of Bhagavan Ramana that the inner peace we

experience effortlessly in the presence of a sage is the hallmark of his

perfect jnana had sealed my opinion of the swami. However, I wished to take

another chance.

 

Next day, I saw him alone at the same place. During the first few minutes

I met with the same seeming indifference of the sage to my presence

accompanied by the same peace. I bowed to him thrice and he took no notice

of it. A painful apprehension that I was not worth his attention was slowly

occupying my heart. I was in a mood to quit. Suddenly a way of trying to

contact him flashed in my mind. I silently prayed to Baba, “Baba, you have

demonstrated that you are one with all saints. If, indeed, you are

identical with this one too, and if you want me to see him often, you have

to demonstrate it to me. I shall silently repeat your sacred name a hundred

times and if, before I finish the number, this saint gives me something

without my asking, I shall take it that I am his as I am yours”.

 

(Source : http://www.saibharadwaja.org)